With help from none other than Hugo Chavez, who praised Chomsky's work in Chavez's red hot U.N. speech, Noam Chomsky is back in the forefront of political discourse.

As valuable as the books are that Chavez helped skyrocket to bestsellers long after their publication, BuzzFlash has wanted for sometime to offer the DVD documentary, "Manufacturing Consent."

This riveting film is based on a book that Chomsky co-authored which nailed why the American media enables the propaganda and spin of the status quo (and especially the Republican Party, which is the primary party representing the corporate world.)

"Presenting an analysis its authors call the 'propaganda model,' the book argues that since mass media news outlets are now run by large corporations, they are under the same competitive pressures as other corporations. According to the book, the pressure to create a stable, profitable business invariably distorts the kinds of news items reported, as well as the manner and emphasis in which they are reported. This occurs not as a result of conscious design but simply as a consequence of market selection: those businesses who happen to favor profits over news quality survive, while those that present a more accurate picture of the world tend to become marginalized.

The book further points out issues with the dependency of mass media news outlets upon major sources of news, particularly the government. If a particular outlet is in disfavor with a government, it can be subtly 'shut out,' and other outlets given preferential treatment. Since this results in a loss in news leadership, it can also result in a loss of readership/viewership. That can itself result in a loss of advertising revenue, which is the primary income for most of the mass media (newspapers, magazines, television). To minimize the possibilities of lost revenue, therefore, outlets will tend to report news in a tone more favorable to the government and giving unfavorable news about the government less emphasis."

The amazing thing is that the book was written in 1988, and this documentary first made in the early '90s. It was released as a DVD, with extras, in 2002.

Watching it, however, we found it as eye-opening as if it were produced yesterday. It provides a full context as to why the corporate media has become a megaphone for politicans who can improve the earnings of the corporation, however damaging their "news negligence" is to the nation and the world. The real news is far down on the list of their concerns.